by Pal, J
After lunch, the girls wanted to do some batch cooking while David and Jay decided to continue their explorations. As expected, Kitty didn’t let me leave. So when I insisted she give me something to do in the kitchen, she assigned me the job of opening tins of tomatoes and beans and crushing garlic. I ended up enjoying my time in the kitchen more than I had expected.
Chapter Twenty-One
Big Brother Is Watching
We visited the Menagerie once everybody was home. Fin approached us with an update. The day for our little platyhawks to leave the nest came upon us suddenly—speaking figuratively of course. They had started flying around the Menagerie for several days. Now, the littlest of the flock had made it her mission to follow the ankylopus out of the base. The Hub had hardwired them never to wander too far, and they thought of it as their nest, so we didn’t have to worry about them leaving us. I considered it a perfect opportunity to increase our intelligence-gathering capabilities and control over the sector.
Kitty, Caitlin, and David busied themselves on the Farm. Jay hung around to play within the Menagerie. Meanwhile, I busied myself on the first floor. The pile of junk we had lying around included several surveillance cameras, smartphones, and transmitting equipment. Using my power, I whipped together several video recorders, transmitters, and communication devices. There were quite a few of us now. We all needed to stay in touch.
After taking a few measurements, I put together collars for the platyhawks. They’d survey the world as our animal guards and broadcast the information to a receiver on the Hub’s fifth floor. When I got in touch with Liam and told him what I was planning, he didn’t mind at all. Kitty, he, and I were the founders of the Hub and could go wherever we pleased, but I still thought it important to get his permission.
Liam cordoned off a little section of the floor set between the stairwell and the elevator. That way, we could access the room without getting in his way. Once the receiver was active and passed our test, I gathered the monitors, speakers, and consoles from around the base and put together a surveillance room.
Now everything we or the platyhawks saw when outside the base would be recorded. This way, if one of us couldn’t go into the field due to injury, mental health, or whatever reason, that person could stay back and act as our eye in the sky. Having the ability to playback our experiences outside and see what we did wrong in a fight or analyze a curious occurrence would go a long way as well.
“You need to set up a couple more,” Liam said, watching me work. “We need cameras on each side of the base at ground and roof levels. Wouldn’t hurt to get a few within as well.”
“Wouldn’t that be wrong? Like we’re spying on our own people?”
“I’m not telling you to put them in peoples’ rooms or the residential floors, but everywhere else. You plan on bringing in more people, don’t you?”
I nodded. “At least start a dialogue. There might be more resistant people among them, or we could fix them using the Telepathic Null Zone. I just want to know if they’re like us or the raiders.”
“Then you need surveillance,” Liam continued. “Not so you can spy on them, but for the sake of safety. Things can go wrong; accidents happen. Having recordings will help us ensure fights don’t break out. Someone we bring in might have interests different from ours. What if they lie and work against the other residents or us? It’s a matter of safety. Wouldn’t hurt if we had eyes in the Menagerie and Farm either. We need to know what’s going on in our home.”
“You’re not wrong,” I replied. “I just don’t want our new guests to think we’re keeping tabs on them.”
“So don’t—”
“I’m not going to lie to people, Liam. Before you say anything, that includes an omission. I’ll implement cameras on all floors except for the third. Let’s leave this one mostly blind except for the space between here and the elevator. We’ll disclose their existence to everyone but won’t tell them where they are, whether they like it or not. How does that sound?”
“It’s a decent compromise.”
We went down to the Menagerie first. Jay and Fin were locked in conversation. We told them what we were up to and, much to my surprise, Jay asked why we hadn’t done it any sooner. He took over the responsibility for placing the camera collars on the platyhawks. He and Fin picked the most adventurous members of the flock, since they were most likely to go exploring. Liam and I set up cameras all around the room before heading down to the Farm.
David didn’t seem to care, but neither Caitlin nor Kitty liked the prospect of having cameras everywhere. They understood why we needed to have surveillance but still considered the thought creepy and perverse. Millions of subscribers watching our every move was bad enough, but at least they were strangers. It took a while to have them see our viewpoint, but that didn’t mean they liked having the cameras around.
After placing a few on the ground floor and basement, Liam and I started on the outside. He took charge of the roof cameras. Meanwhile, I worked on the ones at ground level. We didn’t know how much good they would do us with the bulbs and planned plant-based defenses, but they’d definitely keep us safer. While we took a step back to take in the Hub, Jay and Fin opened the metal shutters on the fourth floor and the platyhawks flew out.
Only a third of the flock left the Menagerie, but Fin had expected as much. They were still juveniles after all, and not all of them had found their bravery yet. On the other hand, all the ankylopus were out and about. Their growth had slowed down, and Fin believed the creatures were almost full-sized now. From nose to tail, they were longer than the platyhawk bosses we had recently fought but didn’t match them in girth or height. Fin claimed the former was only a matter of time. The bone-plating would widen their build soon, but we didn’t know what to expect for the height.
The ankylopus crawled down the buildings but didn’t leave their vicinity. I intended to make cameras for them too. For the time being, aerial surveillance took priority. Besides, most would run at the sight of the ankylopus anyway. They weren’t particularly stealthy and looked like beaked lizards. The pointed bony protrusions running along their spine had already started breaking the skin, and their crowns weren’t far behind. Once they started patrolling the area, the hill would become our safe haven.
I hurried back to the fifth floor and brought the system online. It took a little prodding, using my technopathic abilities to link the receiver to the console. Then the screens came to life all at once, displaying a jumble of feeds. Considering I had covered an entire wall, keeping up with them was no easy feat. Liam and I spent several minutes organizing them.
First, we divided them between outside and inside views. Then the inside got sorted by the floor and the outside by stationary or moving.
“I’ve linked myself to the system,” Liam said. “When in the base, a partition of my mind will always keep an eye on the outside cameras.”
“I didn’t know you could do that. Is this due to Mega Brain?”
“Yeah. How else do you think I move around and control the drones at the same time? I used one of my last upgrades to increase my partitioning abilities and the other to improve technopathic capabilities.”
“Have you ever considered making an AI to ease the burden somewhat?” I asked. “You could have it run your remote tasks. I reckon having a JARVIS of your own could help a ton.”
“I’ve thought about it,” he replied. “Thing is, in my current state, how different am I from an AI? Might be for the best if there is only one intelligent entity in this body. Now that we have a base and the 3D printer, I’ve been considering building one to take care of the fifth floor for me. It can help with surveillance and run everything we build.”
“As long as you don’t give it any control over the Hub, I don’t see any problem with that. What else are you planning on building? Doesn’t the printer give you pretty much everything you’d need?”
“You’ll see.” A grinning emotion appeared on Liam’s dome. It disapp
eared seconds later, and he pointed at one of the screens. The eight around it went blank for a moment before displaying the one feed across all nine of them. It was one of the platyhawks. It had perched on a high windowsill. The camera zoomed, and Liam’s sudden change in tone made sense. “Those are people.”
“What’s that on their backs?” I asked, studying the segmented metal plates running along on their spine.
“Looks like armor, or it might be part of an exoskeleton,” Liam said. He increased the speakers’ volume, and we could hear their distant whispers. “It’s German. They’re too far away though. I can’t decipher their words.”
“Exoskeletons—that might mean they have a tech-based power user among them! We should make contact. What if they have an Omnifabricator making power suits for them?
“Don’t get ahead of yourself. For all we know they could be like the raiders. How about I send a drone out with a message?”
“Perfect!” I exclaimed, watching the people loading a pushcart with biometal.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get to meet the metal spine-bracer-wearing strangers. The young platyhawk got bored of watching them and fluttered off to investigate something else. We couldn’t control its actions and found ourselves blind. Without it, Liam’s Recon Drone couldn’t home in on the camera collar’s technopathic signal. By the time it found the alley where they’d been loading their pushcart, the people were long gone.
He had the recon drone do circuits of the surrounding areas, looking for where they could’ve disappeared to, but they hadn’t left any tracks. It was like they had disappeared into thin air.
“You need to add GPS trackers to their collars and set up a screen that displays everything we’ve mapped,” Liam told me. His tone gave away his frustration. “I don’t particularly want to invite them over for tea or go over to borrow a cup of sugar, but it would be nice to know where they went.”
“We need more smartphones and satnavs,” I replied. “I didn’t have enough GPS trackers and only put them in the communicators. It’s a good call, though. Perhaps we should put them on the more adventurous members of the flock.”
“Might not hurt keeping a couple on the lazier ones too. It’s good to have eyes in the neighborhood, even though there’s not a lot going on.” Liam pointed at the screens displaying the building’s exterior. We have plenty of blind spots, and there are quite a few buildings attackers could use to take cover.”
“Take the drone back to where they were working,” I said. It had scanned the block once more, but the only heat signature visible was around where they had been working. “Let’s see what they were up to.”
The building’s door was closed, so Liam had the drone fly through a closed window. The glass shattered, showering the area with shards. It took a second for the camera to adjust to the change in light. When it did, we found ourselves looking at a bloodbath.
“Are those—”
“They are,” I said. “Correction. They were auranthers.” I had almost forgotten that Liam hadn’t seen the creatures up close yet. I pointed at the bits of biometal. “I suspect these were the elites. They killed them to harvest parts.”
“Killing elites in a sector of this threat level shouldn’t be possible for them. Don’t you think?” Liam directed the Recon Drone to hover close to the butchered corpses, inspecting the wounds inflicted on them. “I see tearing, cuts, and burning. You and Kitty had trouble with these guys, right? How are people with C-ranked powers taking them down?”
“I don’t know. Maybe they’re ambushing or trapping the monsters. I doubt they took all the auranthers together. Look around the room. The walls aren’t damaged at all. I suspect they killed them elsewhere and brought them back here for butchering.”
“I don’t like this,” Liam told me. “If you’re right about the metal on their spine being part of exoskeletons, they have someone like you equipping them. We don’t know what else they have or what they’re using the biometal for.”
“Well, if you’re right about exoskeletons, I imagine they’d invest all of their biometal in armor and weapons. They’d need someone with Omnifabrication abilities or someone capable of biomechanical upgrades. Whichever it is, another ally whose power gels with mine could go a long way.”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself, mate. We don’t know where their allegiances lie. For all we know, they could be fanatical about the Alvan’s deal. The last thing we need is to expose our assets to another faction like the raiders.”
“Either way, we need to start a dialogue,” I said. “It’s important we know what they have, their , and what they’re up to. A known enemy is better than an unknown one. Besides, I’d happily bet that the base, our powers, and our equipment puts us at a significant advantage over most people.”
“That’s assuming they haven’t upgraded their powers too. I know you understand what’s at stake, Matt. I’m just asking you to be careful and proceed with care.” I knew Liam was right. We’d made the mistake of rushing into things too many times. Care was of the utmost importance. I couldn’t afford to lose any more people. I nodded. “Give me a list of what you need. I’ll sort them out for you.”
“You’re going to go out?” I asked.
Instead of answering, he pointed at the 3D printer. A pair of bulky spiders as big as him crawled towards us. They had the sheen of unadulterated biometal, and, unlike Liam, they had six legs coming out of their base and two clawed arms growing out of their sides.
“I’m calling them Scavengers. If we give them the specifications of what we want, they’ll go out and get them for us.”
“That’s pretty amazing,” I said. “Can they fight?”
“No. I’m still working on the machinations that’ll let them transform and join my main body. For the time being, their processes only include searching, extraction, and retrieval. I’m hoping to add a ‘trap building and setting’ function though.”
I gave Liam a list of everything I needed to upgrade the collars and build more. The spider drones scuttled into the stairwell and disappeared. The printer was busy at work. The current project appeared much bigger and bulkier than anything he had built so far. I asked Liam what they were for, but he didn’t answer. He wasn’t sure whether it was going to work or not, so I left him alone and went down to the Menagerie.
As expected, Jay was presently playing with the specimens not ready to leave the nest. I asked him whether he’d like to go out with me and investigate the strangers. Jay refused. If the people weren’t friendly like I expected, we’d end up in a fight. If they were strong enough to take on elite auranthers, the people could do some serious damage to his animals.
Jay was only willing to get into a fight if we were under attack or facing similar dire circumstances. He had long declared his intention to avoid the crushers at any cost. He’d scout, provide backline support, and pull people out of dire situations. He wouldn’t risk any of his beasts’ lives. They were just as important to him as Caitlin or David. It came as no surprise that he didn’t value us as much as them. After all, we barely knew each other. I didn’t expect him to risk his animal friends for us.
Once I was done visiting with him, I went down to the Farm to find Kitty. She was working with Caitlyn and David to spread seeds and plant root vegetables and cuttings. Meanwhile, the drones worked on building vertical planting setups and setting up supports for vines. Besides the sprinklers and sun lamps hanging from the ceiling, they had set up a drip system as well. The drones knew how to use their resources efficiently.
We had achieved self-sufficiency for food and oxygen but still relied on external sources for water. Once we had McGuffins to spare, I intended to find a relevant upgrade to sort out the issue. Perhaps then the Hub could take to the skies, becoming a floating fortress. Then we’d track down our families, rescue however many people we could, and maybe find our way into outer space.
“You want to do what?!” Kitty exclaimed when I told her about the strangers.
“T
hey’re our neighbors,” I said. “We need to find them and introduce ourselves. I suspect they have an Omnifabricator or Bio-augmenter among their ranks. Someone with such a power set could—”
“You’re not ready to go out yet, Matt. Entering a situation that could devolve into combat is out of the question. These people could take you hostage and claim control of the base. Then it wouldn’t just be you at risk, but everyone else too. I get that you to want to help people, but wait until you’re in better shape first.”
“I’m fine, Kitty! The prosthetic is all good, and I’m ready to head out. You don’t need to dote on me.”
“Then why have you been using your left arm for everything?” she asked. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed. Matt, we haven’t defined what’s going on between us, and I don’t want to come across as the person who tells you what you can and can’t do... I care about you though, and I love... how badly you want to help people.”
“I understand what you’re getting at,” I said. “I appreciate that you care about me, but when I say I’m doing okay, you need to trust me.” Kitty didn’t answer and diverted her eyes to the floor. “I’ll admit it: I’m not a hundred percent used to the new arm. Bloody hell, I don’t know if I ever will be. It obeys my commands, but I don’t feel a thing it touches. Figuring out what’s appropriate pressure will take forever. So I might as well get used to using my left arm.”
“Give it a couple more days? Just so I’m sure you won’t be spacing out anymore.”
“Tomorrow. For your sake, I won’t go out today and I’ll do some dexterity exercises to fine-tune my control. Then we go out tomorrow. We’ll keep it to just you and me so we can get in and out of sticky situations quickly. How does that sound?”
